Identity

The author uses the main character and first person narrator Kathleen’s return to her Oakland, California hometown at the novel’s start in order to instigate her thematic explorations concerning identity. Although Kathleen is no longer a child and has created a life for herself away from her home and her mother Marissa, in the wake of her breakup with Oren, Kathleen experiences a crisis of identity. Without Oren, her perception of the future falters. Indeed, upon returning home to California, Kathleen’s preparations “for [her] mother’s matrimony instead of [her own]” only augment her sudden lack of grounding in the world (8). What she wants for her career, from herself, and in a relationship becomes amorphous and unknown to her. As a result, Kathleen not only finds herself reverting to childish resentments, but attempting to detach from her authentic self in order to alleviate...